What is the Difference Between Prebiotics and Probiotics? A Review

Gluten-free, non-GMO, vegan-friendly—today, clean and green are hot when it comes to our food and supplement products.

However, what’s also getting an increasing amount of attention are foods and supplements that are “probiotic-enhanced,” meaning that they come with billions of living bacteria for your gut.

Sounds grody, but it’s actually pretty great: probiotics, or beneficial bacteria, are essential to the efficiency and comfort of the digestive system.

After all, we have more bacteria in our gut than we have human cells. On a sheer number basis, it’s not inaccurate to say that we’re actually more bacterial than human.

With that in mind, are taking “probiotic supplements” really the best approach to improving the beneficial bacteria already present in our gut? Or is there a better way to improve our gut health?

In fact, there is, and it goes by the name of prebiotics.

But what exactly are the differences between prebiotics and probiotics? Do you have to choose between taking one or the other, or is it okay to take both simultaneously? How do you know when you should take prebiotics or probiotics?

In this article, we cover all these answers and more, including an analysis of the best prebiotic supplement you can take to nourish your already present gut probiotics: Performance Lab® Prebiotic.

Let’s get into it.

The Beginner’s Guide on Prebiotics vs Probiotics

Considered the “forgotten organ,” the gut microbiota is a crucial factor in human health and disease. If the human host takes care of his/her bacterial guests in the gut with a healthy diet and prebiotic-rich foods, the bacteria will surely return the favor.

Unfortunately, much of the modern, ultra-processed diet isn’t exactly all that friendly to our intestinal microbes. Without sufficient prebiotic content in our diet, the beneficial bacteria in our gut dwindle and die, leaving more room for unhealthy bacteria to invade and encourage the spread of disease and many metabolic risk factors.

This is why taking a prebiotic supplement, such as Performance Lab® Prebiotic, is such a gut-health gamechanger. Consider it as a gift to your bacterial guests.

Here’s a glance at the formula:

For a more in-depth breakdown of Performance Lab® Prebiotic’s formula, jump down below to the “Best Prebiotic Supplement for Probiotic Support” section below. Otherwise continue reading to understand better the differences between prebiotics and probiotics, as well as how to take either of them to encourage the nourishment and growth of your good bacteria without risking any side effects or other digestive issues.

What is the Difference Between Prebiotics and Probiotics?

Though distinguished by one letter (“pre” and “pro”), prebiotics and probiotics are vastly different in their structure and function. In the basic terms, prebiotics are “food,” whereas probiotics contain “live bacteria.”

Here is a more clear-cut description of the differences between prebiotics and probiotics:

• Probiotics – though a blanket term used to refer to all beneficial bacteria in the gut, “probiotics” contain various living strains of bacteria that comprise a healthy intestinal microbiome.
• Prebiotics – these are essentially “bacteria food”; prebiotics are special fibers that mainly feed the good bacteria in your gut, nourishing your probiotics to stimulate their growth, development, and activity.

Taken either dietarily or as supplements, probiotics provide living cultures of bacteria, whereas prebiotics encompass the fibrous parts of foods that your body can’t digest without the aid of beneficial bacteria—or “probiotics.”

This isn’t to underplay the importance of probiotics. However, what makes prebiotics uniquely advantageous is their relation to probiotics: prebiotics are essential primarily for their nourishing contribution to probiotics.

But considering that probiotic supplements only work insomuch that they’re alive, and that probiotics tend to denature reasonably quickly, whether due to shelf-life expiration or deactivation in the digestive system, their fragility can make them less reliable than prebiotic fibers.

Can You Take Prebiotics and Probiotics Together Without Risking Your Health?

Yes, you can take prebiotics and probiotics together. More importantly, you perhaps should take prebiotics and probiotics together to build beneficial gut bacteria fast and reliably.

Though prebiotics hold a significant advantage over probiotic supplements, due to their greater shelf-lifespan and ability to survive the digestive system before reaching the beneficial bacteria in your colon, adding new probiotics to your prebiotic-enhanced diet may further improve your overall gut health and performance.

Read more about when to take prebiotics in our article.

The Benefits of Prebiotics + Probiotics (or Synbiotics)

When a food source contains both prebiotics and probiotics, it’s referred to as a “synbiotic.” Synbiotics involve a degree of symbiosis between prebiotics and probiotics in that they encourage the health of probiotics, which in turn make better digestive use of prebiotic fibers—as well as various other nutrients that the gut has a difficult time digesting otherwise.

With that in mind, taking a synbiotic approach to improving your probiotic status with prebiotics may significantly enhance:

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• Digestive Comfort and Performance
• Immunity and Pathogen Resistance
• Nutrient Absorption and Status
• Fat Loss and Weight Control
• Cardiometabolic Health

And more. From the gut-brain axis to immunity, the various overlapping health systems with the gut microbiota are immense, covering virtually all aspects of health and fitness.

Insomuch that they elevate your gut health, taking prebiotics + probiotics may, directly and indirectly, improve your overall health, including both daily vitality and long-term longevity. Don’t let your gut health decline when you can easily maintain it with a daily dose of prebiotic supplementation.

When to Take Prebiotics and Probiotics for Optimal Gut Health

Daily and consistently—that’s the most straightforward answer to the question of “when to take prebiotics.” By daily supporting your gut microbiome, prebiotic and probiotic supplements help to selectively promote the growth of beneficial bacteria over harmful bacteria and pathogens. This, in turn, encourages all the digestive and health benefits mentioned above.

However, for the more complicated question of “how do I know if I need probiotics"—in other words, what are the symptoms of poor probiotic status?—the answer to this may vary.

In general, symptoms of poor probiotic status include:

• Frequent abdominal pain and discomfort
• Ongoing signs of bloating
• Indigestion
• Diarrhea or “the runs”
• Excess Gas
• Poor mental performance and energy
• Increased simple carb (sugar) cravings

Likewise, poor nutrient status and all the accompanying side effects of malnutrition may accompany poor gut microbiome, considering the importance of beneficial gut bacteria to optimal nutrient digestion and absorption.

So, to answer the question again: take prebiotics and probiotics daily.

Even if you’re not experiencing any of the listed side effects, prebiotic supplementation may help sustain a healthy gut for the long run.

Do Prebiotics Have Side Effects?

For the most part, side effects with prebiotics, especially prebiotic supplements, are rare. You’re more likely to experience issues with a lack of prebiotics in your diet than too much.

Having said that, consuming large doses of prebiotics may come with a similar range of side effects associated with “eating too much fiber,” namely in the forms of abdominal bloating, discomfort, mild stomach cramps, and feelings of “being blocked”—i.e., constipation.

If you begin experiencing intestinal discomfort with your prebiotic use, you should see improvements by merely reducing the dose of prebiotics you’re consuming and take a probiotic for constipation.

The Weight Loss Benefits of Prebiotic Supplements and Food

Focusing on the potential “side effects” prebiotics threatens to miss out on celebrating the immense benefits of prebiotics. One of the critical health advantages of taking prebiotics is how prebiotic supplements can help you better manage your weight and nutrient levels.

Most diet plans focus on calorie intake, calorie expenditure, macronutrients, micronutrients, and so on—and while, yes, these are fundamentally important to any weight management strategy, what’s often overlooked is the importance of your gut microbiome to achieving a more desirable body composition.

Improving your gut microbiota may significantly enhance your relationship with your diet and, consequently, your overall fitness and body composition.

Related Post: Gut Health and Weight Loss: How Your Gut Bacteria Can Influence Your Weight

Best Probiotics and Prebiotics Supplements to Increase Beneficial Gut Bacteria

Taken alone or with probiotics, prebiotic supplements may significantly improve your gut microbiome. However, the type of beneficial bacteria (probiotics) you should seek to grow, as well as the types of prebiotic supplements you should take to improve these particular bacterial strains, include:

Bifidobacterium + Lactobacillus

Not all bacteria are the same—there are “good” bacteria and “bad” bacteria, especially where intestinal microflora are concerned. Likewise, not all “good” bacteria (probiotics) are the same. In fact, between the two most common strains—Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus—one is typically preferred over the other.

These two probiotics differ in the following ways:

• Bifidobacterium – a highly competitive probiotic strain that helps limit the growth of “bad” bacteria in the gut, reduces gut pH to a healthy threshold and assists with nutrient absorption.
• Lactobacillus – a common probiotic found in the diet, especially dairy products such as yogurt, Lactobacillus helps metabolize certain sugars to produce lactic acid.

Because of Bifidobacterium’s competitive nature, bifidogenic (Bifidobacterium-promoting prebiotics) are typically preferred for prebiotic supplementation. Selectively promoting healthy Bifidobacterium levels contributes to an overall healthier gut microbiome, as this probiotic metabolically outcompetes harmful bacterial strains more effectively than other probiotics.

Inulin-FOS (FructoOligoSaccharides)

Associated with chicory root, a very good prebiotic fiber source, inulin-FOS supplies two soluble fibers with prebiotic properties. The combination of inulin’s “long-chain” structure with FOS’ “short-chain” molecular structure gives inulin-FOS a two-for-one gut health advantage over many other prebiotic sources.

Inulin-FOS supports your gut health in two categories:

• Probiotic Support – digestive performance, pathogen resistance, immune function, and nutritional status
• Soluble Fiber Support – digestive regularity, weight control, heart health

In a study on the health effects and sources of prebiotic dietary fibers, including inulin-FOS, a list of the health benefits of prebiotic dietary fibers included verbatim:

1. Increases in Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli
2. Production of beneficial metabolites
3. Increases in calcium absorption
4. Decreases in protein formation
5. Decreases in pathogenic bacteria populations
6. Decreases in allergy risk
7. Effects on gut barrier permeability
8. Improved immune system defense

Inulin-FOS’ bifidogenic qualities make it particularly useful at encouraging a healthy gut microbiome composition, one that promotes the predominance of Bifidobacteria over unhealthy gut microbes.

Best Inulin-FOS Supplement: Orafti® Synergy1

Combining chicory root-sourced inulin and FOS as a single, premium, patented ingredient, Orafti® Synergy1 is the best inulin-FOS supplement for gut health. Backed by clinical research, Synergy1 has been clinically demonstrated to be not only safe and effective, even for younger users. Still, it may also assist with your bacterial gut health under conditions of gluten-free eating.

Pullulan (Fermented Tapioca)

While the main ingredients of a formula are essential (of course), it’s also important not to overlook the quality and quantity of the “Other Ingredients.” Where many supplements, prebiotic and otherwise, screw up is in their choice of additives.

Cheap, synthetic, hard-to-absorb additives may counterproductively harm your gut health, working against the prebiotic aims of their formulas. NutriCaps®, on the other hand, supply all-natural, premium, patented capsules constructed out of fermented tapioca (pullulan). This prebiotic-infused dietary source only assists with the aim of Performance Lab® Prebiotic’s microbiota-supporting efforts.

To learn more about how NutriCaps® fits in the greater scheme of Prebiotic’s overall gut-healthy design, let’s take a more in-depth look at the formula:

Improve Your Gut Bacteria with Healthy Supplements

Prebiotic-infused NutriCaps® and probiotic-cultivated NutriGenesis®—these two staples of the Performance Lab® line of supplements make all Performance Lab® products the gut-healthiest formulas for overall health and performance. However, the specific promotion of gut microbiota makes Performance Lab® Prebiotic the best prebiotic supplement for the job.

Delivering an all-natural, patented inulin-FOS fiber in all-natural, prebiotic-infused capsules, Performance Lab® Prebiotic is altogether 100% natural, eco-friendly, vegan-friendly, non-GMO, synthetic-free, stim-free, and safe for daily, long-term use by health enthusiasts of all dietary lifestyles.

Get the Best Deal on Performance Lab® Prebiotic Here